20 "Hellscapes (City PT.2)"

(Warning: Contains violence, gore. You have been warned.)

For all I cared. For all I bothered to care. The city burned into ashes, the city trembled with our fear. The fear was filling all of our chests, our heads. All of us were scared.

The humming melody calmed me. I opened my eyes, just to see the burning, hot fire before me. It stung. I was tied, and I saw people in the distance.

“HELP! HELP ME, SOMEONE! PLEASE!” I screamed for help, I screamed for help so many times, but all they did was laugh and point at me.

“HELP!” My throat felt sore, dry. I screamed at voidless figures that just kept surrounding me and kept closing in. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. No one was going to help me. Nobody. I had nobody at all.

Amongst them was Carter. He smiled the widest. The biggest grin fancied his face as he approached me, closing in together with voidless, dark figures.

I opened my eyes, gasping for air. It felt like I couldn’t breathe. But I was well, I was fine. The four of them stood around me.

“Oh, he’s awake.” Daniele poked my cheek, leaning back. I rubbed my eyes, glancing at them.

“What happen-” I said, but got cut off.

“You passed out.” Felix interrupted. I sat up, rubbing my wrists, noticing they didn’t even have anything on them. The nightmare felt so real that it felt like the ropes were still on my wrists.

I looked around. Anna had a bandage wrapped around her wrist. It was almost dark, it was really dirty and dusty.

"Anna- Your wrist-" I sat up, looking up at her. I stood up, my legs wobbly.

"A rat bit me. But I'm fine, it's not infected, just a little wound." She smiled, I breathed out. I did read a lot of books about the human body. I do remember quite a lot of things.

But I was never good at it.

"You positive?" I asked, she nodded, smiling.

"Huh? Yeah. I'm more than positive." She smiled back. I grasped hold of the railing with my hand. I didn't want to lose my balance.

I just nodded. I didn't know what to say at that point. I wasn't good with words. Words scared me.

Amethy's POV:

The fantasy genre always talked about the Apocalypse. Either a complete downfall or a beginning of one.

The apocalypse was a joke everyone threw around, asking questions like, "What will you do? Who would you live with?"

The questions so simple yet so hard to answer at this very moment. I remember holding his hand when the roof fell. The two of us coughed and then he realized he needed to find his brother.

He ran away and never came back. He ran away and left me back in that field, holding onto a promise.

"Wait for me. I'll be just right back with him. I promise." He said. I promised I will. But I didn't break our promise. He did.

As for all I could've cared back then, I didn't know when I'd let go off of everyone. It happened sooner than I thought.

I stared at my bloody hands. I didn't know what happened. How it happened.

How I let it happen.

My hands shook, they shook so intensely that my knife fell out of my hand, hitting the ground, sinking into the dust. What have I done?

What have I done?! I just killed a person. I just took a life of a person that probably was innocent. That was probably protecting themselves from me.

He put a hand on my shoulder, rubbing it. I looked at him, startled. My gaze focused on his calm expression.

Was he a mad man? Why didn't he move away when I took the life of the innocent person?

"Don't blame yourself. You had to." He assured me, rubbing his hand on my shoulder.

I jumped back. My eyes wide, staring at him. His calm expression didn't fade. Was he a psychopath?!

"How can you- How can you be so calm about all of this?! I just- Killed a man! I killed a human being- A living thing!" He walked towards me.

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I pushed him away, away from myself.

"Amey. It was either you or him. Either both or one would've died. You chose the right choice." He lifted his arm up, extending it towards me. He turned it, as if asking me to walk towards him, take his hand and let him lead me a place safe, a place where I could close my eyes and just forget it.

But the sight of his shirt staining with the red and warm blood, him gasping for air as blood was rushing down from his mouth, alongside down his chin burned back into my memory.

I just killed an innocent man. A man who probably once had a loving family. A man, a creature just like all of us. Trying to survive in the impossible.

I looked at him. The silence sunk into my chest, like a sharp knife. It cut a piece of me that existed once, but now was long gone.

Tears rolled down my cheeks. I stared down at the lifeless body of a man I never knew. I never would've known.

He walked over, pulling me into a warm hug. I tightened my arms around his shoulders and just sobbed. He brushed his hand down my hair, repeating a couple words I didn't hear, but it was probably the ones I thought of.

I woke up. He glanced at me.

"Can't sleep?" He whispered, I laid my head down onto my jacket again.

"I don't know. I don't know anymore." I muttered, he was sitting, leaning by his elbows.

He slid next to me. He wrapped his arms around me, I felt safe. I looked up at him. His face not visible completely in the dark, but I knew he gave me smile.

"Better?" He whispered, I nodded. I made myself comfortable, hugging his arms and closed my eyes.

Alexander's POV:

My feet felt sore. They felt so sore that I felt like I'd collapse any second. Felix was behind me, the others were walking in front. They had a lot of energy, whilst I was just exhausted.

I stopped. Felix walked behind me. I carried on to go.

I felt his arm wrapping around my waist, I inhaled. What the fuck? What did he think he was doing?

What in the world did he think he was doing?

He helped me walk, I was silent. He stood close to me, his arm wrapped around my waist, lifting me up, helping me move my feet.

"Felix? What are you doing?" I looked up at him, he didn't shift his gaze anywhere from the distance he was looking at.

"I'm helping you walk." He walked beside me. My throat felt sore. No words came out. It was just dry, sore and silent.

He let go once Daniele turned, stopping.

"Is everyone in one piece?" She asked, the two of us nodded at the same time, throwing glances at one another.

She glanced at everyone. She turned her back to us again, just continueing to walk. We walked too.

"Do you still need-" He asked, I shook my head.

He cleared his throat. "Got it."

We walked. The awkward silence stretched in-between us. Felix didn't glance at me once, just walked in silence.

I saw a figure in the distance. I widened my eyes.

"Guys- GUYS- STOP!" I yelled out, they stopped, turning to me confused. My eyes were wide. My hands shook. I rose my arm, pointing at the man tied to the wooden pole. Half of it was sunken in the sand.

Daniele turned.

She approached Felix. I felt like something was wrong. Really.. Wrong.

She pulled him aside, as they seemed to argue in whispers. I've overheard some words like "Raiders", "Danger" and "Rope". Even though raiders was the fair warning by itself.

They walked back to our group, Daniele cleared her throat.

"We believe it's best to cut it here." She said, the others looked confused, even mad.

"But- Why?! We've travelled all this way for- Nothing?! This is unfair!" Anna was mad, she was complaining and throwing a huge fit at her.

Me and Gilliard stayed silent. We didn't want to get ourselves involved. Felix didn't like how Anna acted. His frown soon turned into an mad one and he approached her, grabbing her by her collar.

He pulled her close to his face.

"Do you realize what we might be facing?! Are you out of your MIND to cross that border where there could be humans that are just absolutely out of their minds? Psychotic?!" He yelled at her, Anna's frown faded and shifted into a scared expression.

"Felix that's enough-" Daniele reached for his shoulder to calm him down.

"He's dead! That MAN over there has his guts literally spilling out and hung! Like a display and a warning! You still want to go there, huh? Go ahead. Go AHEAD!" He shoved her, she fell to the ground.

All of us went silent.

He wiped off his mouth. He scoffed. He turned and stormed off to the opposite direction of the body.

"Felix!" I yelled after him, but he ignored me.

"Felix wait!" I ran after him, reaching for his arm, but he shoved me away.

I tripped over my feet, falling. I hit my head, hard. I felt something warm rushing down the back of my head, as I put my hand there to check.

I looked at my hand. The palm of my hand was covered with blood. I looked up at him, he looked at me.

His was biting his lip as if to stop himself from getting upset. Or have a bad outburst of emotions.

"Felix it's-" I said, but he just approached me. He hugged me. It was so unnexpected yet he just remained still. Tightening his arms around my body, making it a bit hard to breathe.

"Felix..-" I whispered. I held up my hand by his back, thinking. I put my hand on his back, starting to rub it there as a way to comfort him.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you got hurt because of me. That Anna was hurt because of me." He just whispered. His voice trembled.

I've never seen this side of him. How real he felt. How small he pronably felt.

"Hey.. It's okay." I whispered, and I got up. I felt dizzy, but I managed to take it under control. He looked at me.

I helped him up, he helped me walk. My head was dizzy. I didn't know if I could handle it so much, I hit it pretty hard.

We approached the others.

"I'm sorry-" Felix said, as Daniele slapped him. He turned his face off.

"Guys that's enough-" I said, my legs felt weak. My eyes went dark, my mind blank. I collapsed.

(Hello! It is me, the Author again. I deeply apologize for the short updates, and the amount of chapters. These weeks have been hard to manage with my studies, and I didn't have time. I love working on this story and I'm glad I'm already at chapter 20! I apologize for taking so long for a new update. I'll try to update much more, and more often. – With love, Skara)